The National Air and Space Museum looks like a shipping crate. Did someone really get paid to design it?
Don't judge a book by its cover: you're looking at the scaffolding and construction coverings used during the restoration.
It's actually a series of seven enormous connected blocks stretching along Independence Avenue between 4th and 7th Streets, S.W. The site—just south of the National Mall and in view of the Capitol Building—was previously used as a parking lot.
It's not the most attractive monumental building in Washington, but in this case form must follow function. Those huge structures are needed to contain the aircraft and spacecraft that sit at floor level and hang from the ceilings.
I've never tried to capture of photo of the whole thing from street level, but I've attached a picture I snarfed from the Smithsonian Institution website.
